Oded (Dedda) Levin was born in Tel-Aviv, where he graduated from high school. After serving in the army, and as a past member of a youth movement, he was among the founders of Kibbutz Nahal-Oz. He was married to Tzipi and they had two children.

During his studies he became interested in the application of optimization techniques to the management of water resources. The Israeli Association of Engineers and Architects awarded the Arnun Prize to his thesis on “Optimal Utilization of an Aquifer as an Element of a Water-Resources System”.

He started his professional career as Research Engineer at the Israel Laboratory of Physics. In 1966 he joined the staff of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion, where he specialized in Operations Research. He was a popular lecturer and advisor of graduate students. He taught at Tel-Aviv University as adjunct, and spent a summer in 1967 as researcher at the University of California in Berkeley. He also was a consultant to TAHAL, Water Planning for Israel Ltd.

Oded Levin’s brilliant contributions to the study, planning, and management of water resources, and his innovative application of Mathematical Programming and Optimization methods to these resources, won him the international acclaim of the scientific community in these fields.

In the Six Day War of 1967, Oded volunteered as a scout for the army unit where he was a sergeant, and participated in heavy battles around Jenin and the Dothan Valley. Though asked to join a specialist unit, he preferred to stay with his scouting comrades. While on reserve duty in 1969, he fell on the Golan Heights when a mine blasted his vehicle.

We remember in sorrow Oded’s optimism, love of his country and of people, and mourn the loss of his talent.